Profit doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make the line go up! It’s a failing company because line didn’t go up! Tractors aren’t the product. Only line is product. All hail line. If we pray to line, perhaps line go up?
Yes, yes, now: about those executive paychecks. We feel $27M per year isn’t competitive. We’re thinking more like 500M. To start.
10 to 15 yrs later: “Line no longer go up! We need bailout!, if no bailout, line go down and politicians fired!”
Yup sadly with how the Crockmarket works a company can fail because the line didn’t go up. If it doesn’t go up investors will pull out and kill a company but this thinking is bullshit because as soon as a company starts to dip some will sell but others will step in and then the new line is a bit lower but then it can go up without layoffs.
Let us all gather and pray for the ascension of the demarcation.
Remember that trope about AI destroying humanity due to mistakenly trying to over-optimize for bent paperclips
Turns out it was actually always about the lines humanity itself could raise along the way
Line them throats, line them wrists,
For the market share
They’d call us terrorists
We can hardly care.
It’s not inflation if companies are posting record profits.
$10 billion might be record breaking but not the record breaking you are thinking of. 2017 was the last time they posted profits around $10 billion or less.
If a company makes 10 billion dollars, they should be able to hire more people or pay everyone more. Instead that money is siphoned by unemployed bums who have absolutely nothing to do with the company - the “investors.”
If this system weren’t already in place, we would consider it completely comical.
Except their profits need to also cover: Reinvestment in the Business: This includes spending on research and development, upgrading equipment, expanding operations, and improving infrastructure.
Debt Repayment: Reducing existing debt to strengthen the company’s financial position.
Dividends: Distributing a portion of profits to shareholders as dividends.
Share Buybacks: Purchasing the company’s own shares to reduce the number of outstanding shares and increase the value of remaining shares.
Employee Compensation: Providing bonuses, raises, benefits, and other non-salary incentives to employees.
Mergers and Acquisitions: Acquiring or merging with other companies to expand market reach and capabilities.
Savings and Reserves: Setting aside funds for future investments or as a buffer against economic downturns.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Investing in community projects, environmental sustainability, and other social initiatives.
Marketing and Advertising: Increasing brand awareness and market presence through marketing campaigns.
Technology Upgrades: Investing in new technologies to enhance efficiency and productivity.
To name a few.
Chatgpt detected
100% I’m not fuckin typing that all out lol.
It just tickled my GPTdar
I don’t trust it as far as I can throw it for things I am uninformed on and I do not think any of these AI models are going to change the world the way people are hoping. However, as a tool for saving time I think they’re great. Prompted properly of topics you are able to audit for accuracy and I’ll let them do all the tasks in the world lol. I’ll admit I felt guilty as fuck as soon as I saw you call me out on it lol but for how spot on you were I had to give you the credit and confirmation you were 100% accurate 🍻
Is that what they should do? Abso-fucking-lutely
But is that what any publicly traded company does??
Did you even read the fucking article 🤣
Sure. But they aren’t the only ones posting record profits in the past few years.
If anyone hasn’t watched the latest Wendover Productions video, I highly recommend it.
It covers John Deere’s transition into a technology company and details why they’re laying off a lot workers. Link
I get why people are upset by the headline. It is written to provoke anger. Unfortunately, anger at the wrong issue.
I understand the argument that a large company can absorb the cost of workers they don’t currently. Though it’s unrealistic to expect them too.
I lived in the Quad Cities for a number of years. A large majority of people I know, both family and friends, worked for either Deere or Case IH - until they closed the plant in East Moline.
Layoffs are a yearly thing. Deere, Case, Caterpillar, they all hire a bunch of people in the beginning of the year and lay them off towards the end. It’s typically around August or September, and they announce it in July. Everyone in the Quad Cities knows it. It is expected. Sometime early next year, they are going to hire these jobs back. The people who take these jobs go into it knowing this is going to happen.
It can suck being let go and some people might struggle with it. Those who are used to this cycle treat it as a well-paying seasonal job. Many already have something else lined up. This is only a single, anecdotal, data point, so take it with a grain of salt… one of my uncles works for Deere and is a bus driver for one of the school districts. He knows Deere is going to let him go by fall so he has the driving job for the rest of the year. In spring, he will go back to Deere.
Perspective is also important. Deere has somewhere between 80k and 85k employees. They are laying off < 1000 based on this story. That’s the equivalent of a small, 80 person company hiring 1 person to get through the holiday season, then laying them off in January. Next year, they will do it again.
Headlines like this are nothing more than a distraction from real issues. For example, why does any company have multi-billions of dollars in profit to begin with? It just means they are charging more than they need to. The farmers who buy Deere equipment then have to charge more for their produce. Which means the stores have to charge more. Which means we pay more for our food. Deere’s profits are leading to higher food prices for everyone. To me, that is more of an issue than 1/80th of their workforce being in a hire/layoff cycle.
You’re looking at it from the perspective of the customer, but another aspect to get angry about is what is completely insane to someone who doesn’t live in the US. How the fuck can a company hire people who they’re going to let go in less than a year, and do that year and year? Where I live that’s illegal. The government will grab the company by the balls if they do that.
If you’re a company and you want to fire someone you first have to give a good reason why their position is being removed, then you need a good reason why you can’t give them a different position within the company and finally, when you’ve actually fired the person, you need to give them a government regulated severance package, which is usually multiple months pay in advance. And you can’t fire on the spot, you need to give at minimum a 2 week notice. In case you didn’t notice, those are rules of you just want to fire a single person, layoffs have even more rules. In short, where I live companies use layoffs as a last resort because it’s guaranteed to lose them money.
The entire hire/layoff cycle you take as something normal is something not normal to me. So this is a reminder to Americans that it is not normal and you can demand for more.
2 weeks! It is 3 months in norway for most work. This is mutual so it works both ways.
Seasonal/contract work is different tho, they know the start and end date when signing.
Though it’s unrealistic to expect them too.
Why is that an unrealistic expectation? That’s how it works in many countries with decent worker rights
Damn it I came in here to rage… Then read your post. Very well said and reasoned. Thank you for this perspective.
Maybe it’s just my feed but lately all my posts are just rage/anger baits… I want some good educational news damn it!
Not good enough for Republicans. John Deere has to abandon any and all programs to have a diverse workforce.
I’m one of those guys that’s getting laid off 😭
Sorry to hear this nobody deserves to be laid off. I hope you have a lot of money stashed away.
Laying off employees should be illegal. Fuck greedy dirty executives and CEOs.
It’s actually not that bad because I’m in the UAW. So contractually, Deere still pays me “subpay” for almost a year (way less, but it’s something) and I keep my health insurance for 6 months. I also get callback rights for 3 years and I’m one of the first like 50 guys to get called back. I heard from a guy that would get fired for saying so that we’ll be back about the first of the year, so I’m just pretending it’s a long vacation.
I feel really bad for some of my salaried friends, they have no protections. They don’t get subpay, they don’t keep their insurance, and they definitely don’t get callback rights. Those poor bastards don’t even know who’s getting canned yet.
Meanwhile Deere spent billions buying back stock and sending our jobs to fuckin Mexico. When we went on strike I said we should open negotiations by rolling the CEO’s severed head across the table. Everyone said “God damn Bizzle, you ever consider chilling?” but now look, they think they can do whatever they want. No accountability. Welcome to the “Land of the Free”, as long as you’re fabulously wealthy.
Well hopefully people will buy from a different brand.
I think we found out who ate all the pies.
Blind greed is a deadly affliction for all but the afflicted
I’m MUCH Happier with my Tax Dollars going to these Job Creators laying off Workers then to Feed Starving American Children!
-Fiscally Responsible Jesus Humping Republicans!
John Deer stock buybacks
- April 30, 2024: $1.1 billion
- January 31, 2024: $1.3 billion
- October 31, 2023: $2.6 billion
- July 31, 2023: $2.1 billion
- April 30, 2023: $1.3 billion
- January 31, 2023: $1.3 billion
- October 31, 2022: $1.2 billion
- July 31, 2022: $1.3 billion
Total: $12.2 billion in 2 years.7-8 billion actually. But I suppose they rounded up.
https://thehill.com/business/4750201-john-deere-laying-off-hundreds-of-midwest-workers/
Ah, it’s last year vs this year. I get it.
Why is the picture of pritzker? Is he laying people off?
What a weird choice to have an image of Pritzker for this article.
Agreed. I don’t know much about the source but it might just be an indication of the author’s intent, if there is a human author.
There is a much better image choice to be used and it would not take much effort.
Update: Saw the pic, read the article, but didn’t realize the forum until afterwards. Will just move and pretend.
I just noticed other articles about California and Michigan. They also used Newsome and Whitmer as the image. But then another for Georgia did not use Kemp as the image.
Sounds like there is a motive. Typically I sample the headlines and read a site’s “About Us” page before diving in.
It was early, I saw a familiar face, and started reading. Also this very subgroup is a tad bit too general for my taste. Never again.
All three have one thing in common: named as potential replacements.
Media moves quick to burn.
Most people know this recent history, but in case you missed it:
So payback for right-to-repair? Feh. They’d have done it anyway. Flag-wavers in farm country expecting some incoming cognitive dissonance.
Payback wasn’t the point, I was just providing some context. John Deere sucks for multiple reasons.
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